A Farming Year in 1955 dvd, originally called Fenland Farming 55, provides a fascinating glimpse of a world gone by. The programme covers a year in the life of a Lincolnshire farm at a time when horse-drawn carts brought seed potatoes to a field where a gang of men planted them by hand, while a tractor driven ridger closed the rows behind them.

We see grain crops harvested using a binder and combine, muck spread by horse and cart and five different types of working machines. Corn on the farm was still stooked, stacked and threshed, although the new Massey Harris combine was about to render such skills completely obsolete.

The farm featured in this dvd, Home Farm, kept livestock and grew a variety of crops including potatoes, wheat, sugar beet, mustard and peas, all of which are seen in the programme.

Home Farm was and still is a fine example of fenland farming, and thanks to Mr Piccaver and his camera, we are able to look back at a time when two agricultural systems ran side by side, the old traditional way of life being phased out and the new farming industry coming in.

Nothing filmed before or after could have captured the rich variety of machinery and farm skills.

For quick reference of all farming dvds available within the shop, visit the Farming DVDs A-Z page.